Tepco facing plaintiff surge over Fukushima debacle, ’08 disaster warning

[yuiyoshida]

IWAKI, FUKUSHIMA PREF. – Four and a half years after the Fukushima meltdown disaster started, and as Japan tentatively restarts nuclear power elsewhere, the legal challenges are mounting for the crippled plant’s operator.

They include a judge’s forced disclosure of a 2008 internal document prepared for managers at Tokyo Electric Power Co warning of a need for precautions against an unprecedented nuclear catastrophe.

Also, class actions against Tepco and the government now have more plaintiffs than any previous Japanese contamination suit and, overruling reluctant prosecutors, criminal charges have been leveled against former Tepco executives for failing to take measures to prevent the 2011 meltdowns and explosions.

Radiation from the worst nuclear plant disaster since Chernobyl in 1986 forced 160,000 people from their homes, many never to return, and destroyed businesses, fisheries and agriculture.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/08/17/national/crime-legal/tepco-facing-plaintiff-surge-fukushima-debacle-08-disaster-warning/#.VdIPaX0VjMo

[Octafish]

1. The people of Japan have the legal grounds to sue.

From Greg Palast

Fukushima: They Knew

This month marks the 3rd Anniversary of the Fukushima Nuclear disaster.

By Greg Palast for FreePress.org
Monday, March 10, 2014

EXCERPT...

I was ready to vomit. Because I knew who had designed the plant, who had built it and whom Tokyo Electric Power was having rebuild it: Shaw Construction. The latest alias of Stone & Webster, the designated builder for every one of the four new nuclear plants that the Obama Administration has approved for billions in federal studies.

But I had The Notebook, the diaries of the earthquake inspector for the company. I'd squirreled it out sometime before the Trade Center went down. I shouldn't have done that. Too bad.

All field engineers keep a diary. Gordon Dick, a supervisor, wasn’t sup- posed to show his to us. I asked him to show it to us and, reluctantly, he directed me to these notes about the “SQ” tests.

SQ is nuclear-speak for “Seismic Qualification.” A seismically qualified nuclear plant won’t melt down if you shake it. A “seismic event” can be an earthquake or a Christmas present from Al Qaeda. You can’t run a nuclear reactor in the USA or Europe or Japan without certified SQ.

This much is clear from his notebook: This nuclear plant will melt down in an earthquake. The plant dismally failed to meet the Seismic I (shaking) standards required by U.S. and international rules.

Here’s what we learned: Dick’s subordinate at the nuclear plant, Robert Wiesel, conducted the standard seismic review. Wiesel flunked his company. No good. Dick then ordered Wiesel to change his report to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, change it from failed to passed. Dick didn’t want to make Wiesel do it, but Dick was under the gun himself, acting on direct command from corporate chiefs. From The Notebook:

Wiesel was very upset. He seemed very nervous. Very agitated. [He said,] “I believe these are bad results and I believe it’s reportable,” and then he took the volume of federal regulations from the shelf and went to section 50.55(e), which describes reportable deficiencies at a nuclear plant and [they] read the section together, with Wiesel pointing to the appropriate paragraphs that federal law clearly required [them and the company] to report the Category II, Seismic I deficiencies.

Wiesel then expressed his concern that he was afraid that if he [Wiesel] reported the deficiencies, he would be fired, but that if he didn’t report the deficiencies, he would be breaking a federal law. . . .

CONTINUED...

http://www.gregpalast.com/fukushima-they-knew-3/

Which is why TEPCO, Japan, Nuke Inc and the USA went out of their way the other day to play up the tsunami's role:

Tsunami, not Quake, Seen as Main Cause of Fukushima Accident

by Mari Iwata
Wall Street Journal, Oct. 8, 2014

Japan’s nuclear regulator said Wednesday that the tsunami following the March 11, 2011, earthquake–not the quake itself–was the main cause of the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The conclusion matters because of the implications for other nuclear-power plants. Virtually all of Japan is prone to earthquakes, but some places are relatively protected from tsunamis. Currently all of the nation’s 48 reactors are offline, and the government is weighing whether to restart some next year.

In the March 2011 nuclear accident, three reactors melted down after the plant lost main and backup power, paralyzing cooling systems.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority studied why the No.1 reactor lost backup power and concluded on Wednesday in a report that the tsunami was the main cause, based on data about temperature, pressure and other parameters. Those data were stable immediately after the earthquake hit at 2:46 p.m., suggesting the plant didn’t suffer critical damage until the arrival of the tsunami some 45 minutes later.

A previous investigation by Japan’s parliament had left more room for the possibility that the earthquake itself did significant damage.

The regulator said it would translate the report into English and post it on its website. The Japanese-language version is here.

“You cannot say there was no damage by the earthquake at all. But you can say the major cause was the tsunami, looking at the data,” said Tamotsu Kozaki, a nuclear engineering professor of the Hokkaido University.

CONTINUED...

http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2014/10/08/tsunami-not-quake-seen-as-main-cause-of-fukushima-accident/

Which is not what the scientists said, way back when they were warning TEPCO, which elected to take the cheapskate's way out.



Here's a bit to add to the atomic pile:

Masanobu Shishikura: The Man Who Predicted the Tsunami in 2009.

British scientist 'predicted nuclear power station problem'

Toshiaki Sakai: Utility Engineer Warned of Tsunami Threat at Japanese Nuclear Plant in 2007

Apart from venting hot air in committee meetings, TEPCO did nothing, and hoped for the best.

DU OP from 2014